by Aaron Frale
Sarge said. “I need you to fan out in twos. You are here to inform them that they will have to move in two days, and it’s not an option.”
The squad signaled their understanding of the order and Hayden did as instructed. While Sarge spoke with an infirmed elder who could barely hobble to the square, Hayden wandered to a house with Spider. He knocked at the door. A woman answered. Her skin was dark green, and she had bright blue hair. She was beautiful. “Hi, we are here to inform you that there’s a new place-” Hayden began.
Spider pushed past Hayden into the house. “Stop being such a pansy, man. This ain’t their house anymore.” He walked into the front room and looked around. They were in a great room that had a kitchen, living room, and dining area. It was made for a lot of people because the Nigramotoians usually lived with their extended families. Aunts, uncles, and their children all lived under one roof. There were six children huddled in the corner. They shook with fear and whimpered. “Look what we have here.”
Hayden charged into the house. Spider caressed the face of one of the youngest. “Ain’t you a cute one?”
“We will not leave!” the woman who answered the door yelled. “Get out of my house.”
“Oh yeah?” Spider grabbed the kid and yanked him from the others. The child yowled from the pain. “You want me to move you because I will.”
He threw the kid down, and the woman knelt on the floor. The child wept while she stroked his head.
“Come on Spider,” Hayden intervened. “There are better ways to go about this.”
“You bet your ass there are better ways. How about I shoot each one of you who doesn’t leave?”
“Please,” the woman pleaded. “You are scaring the children.”
Spider lifted the woman from the ground and pushed himself against her. He ran his hands through her hair. “I tell you what. How about we go to the bedroom, and I’ll give you some extra days.”
“Stop,” Hayden grabbed Spider’s arm and pulled it away.
“You best take your hand off me before you lose it.”
Before Hayden could say anything, Sarge burst through the door. He screamed at the both of them, “I said inform, not force! Relations are strained enough. We don’t need you two causing us any more trouble.”
“It was Hayden’s idea, sir,” Spider threw Hayden under the transport.
“Come again?” Sarge said with a level of incredulity.
Hayden knew that either way he answered, he’d be screwed. If he told Sarge what happened, they’d both be punished, and Spider would paint a target on Hayden’s back. If Hayden took the fall, maybe he’d at least have Spider’s goodwill. Rather than earn the scorn of two men, Hayden elected to tell a lie. “I’m sorry, sir. I misunderstood your order.”
Sarge berated Hayden for his indiscretion. Spider smiled and gave Hayden the thumbs up. Tonight would involve hauling large mining equipment while the others rested.
_______
It wasn’t until hours after the others fell asleep that Hayden was allowed to finish his task. Sarge ordered Hayden to get some rest, as they would be moving out tomorrow to find the krikshek beast. Hayden’s muscles were sore. His back ached. Even though he was genetically enhanced and the suit provided extra power, he still had to work his muscles to lift two-thousand-pound ore canisters. It took a toll on his body.
Back at camp, Sarge was the only one awake. He had removed his helmet and was chewing on a cigar. Hayden removed his and looked up at the sky. The stars were out, and the moons were in various stages of waxing and waning. The stars were abundant, unlike in the city where he would be lucky to see a planet. The Milky Way even crossed the sky, though in a different location than he had seen when he was in Colorado back on Earth.
As if Sarge was echoing his thoughts, “You can’t see this anywhere on Earth. Hell, you’re lucky if you can even see the moon poking through a skyscraper.”
“Not in the Rockies, sir,” Hayden said. “You can see the stars in the Rockies.”
“You’ve been to the Rockies?” Sarge laughed.
“Yes, sir. My dad didn’t sell his visitors permit.”
“My father sold his. Spent it on booze,” Sarge spat. Hayden felt a little awkward. Sarge was a little too forthcoming. Almost none of the others knew anything about him. It was like he wanted the others to know nothing.
“You from Earth?”
“Kansas City. Home of the best barbecue on the planet.”
“What are the chances of two Earthlings being in the same squad? There are so many worlds. So many human settlements.”
“Don’t let the sentiment go to your head. Earth’s a shithole. Out here, though… never thought I’d find a place where I’d want to retire.”
“Sir?”
“You never mind. Best get some rest. We’re going hunting tomorrow. The krikshek beast has been spotted, and we will take it out. And trust me, if you don’t have your wits about you, then your ashes will be going home to your folks.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sarge spat and chewed the cigar some more. Hayden looked at the stars one last time before he went to the temporary shelter.
3
Hayden ground to a halt at the edge of a great precipice. He had startled a flock of blue-green shaylock birds. They fluttered into the distance. The forest was a deep green all the way to the edge of the chasm. The drop was far, and a river on the bottom could barely be seen. His muscles were still sore from moving the mining equipment last night.
The roar from the trees broke the serenity of the overlook. For a brief moment, Hayden had forgotten the angry krikshek beast that had crashed through the squad during a break from marching and gored one of their members. The krikshek beast looked like a bear with two large horns and fierce claws. It had a tail with spikes that could puncture power armor.
There was nothing like it on Earth, just like there was nothing like the forest of Nigramoto. He remembered learning that there was once a large woodland area on Earth called the Amazon, but it was paved over. Cities were built. The only pockets of the forest that remained were manicured playgrounds for the ultra-rich.
The trees at the edge of the cliff cracked as the creature chasing him snapped the foliage in half. It growled and advanced towards him, leaving broken trees in its wake. He wished he had grabbed his floating disc or gun; they were back where his squad had stopped to take a breather. He had stripped his gear to adjust the environmental controls on his suit, and he was fiddling with the air intake when the krikshek attacked. Sarge gave the order to scatter. Hayden was the unlucky target of the predator looking for its next meal.
He remembered a couple of the others managed to fire off a few rounds, but the standard issue rifles were useless. The floating disc would have been the prime choice of gear. He could have floated over the chasm to safety by now. Instead, he was trapped by a creature stronger than twelve of him.
The krikshek snarled and moved in for the kill. Hayden considered dodging when it pounced so that it would fall into the ravine. However, it was too big. He wouldn’t be able to move fast enough. He didn’t imagine it would end this way. He had heard that many new soldiers died every year from the wildlife on this planet. He didn’t think that he’d be one of them.
“Teristaque,” Hayden heard a voice call from nowhere. “Climb the tree. Hurry.”
Hayden looked around and saw a Nigramotoian at the top of a tree. The trunk was thin, yet it didn’t bend with the weight of its occupant. From the way the krikshek beast snapped the other trees, he couldn’t imagine the tree would offer much protection. For lack of better options, Hayden decided to trust the Nigramotoian. He leaped to the tree and latched onto the base. The krikshek charged.
Hayden scrambled to the top, and the krikshek beast hit the trunk with a crash. There was a crack, but the tree didn’t budge. The bark wasn’t even nicked. Hayden climbed to the highest branches while the creature wobbled, dazed from the hit. When it finally came around, he was well out
of reach.
While the krikshek struggled to reach them, the Nigramotoian stuck out his hand. Hayden had to readjust his grip to shake it. The Nigramotoian was dressed like one of the tribal members rather than one from the city. His green skin was covered in tattoos. He wore a traditional loincloth and had on ceremonial gear, but he also had a few pieces of dusty, old electronic equipment. He smiled and said, “Sha’Ce’Tin, but most Teristaques call me Sha. The noble beast will lose interest in us after a while. It cannot break the Branbuk tree. The plant feeds on the decrand and infuses it into its bark. It is the hardest living thing on the planet. When Father Wind or Brother Fire decides to clear the forest, the Branbuk survives. When the earth brothers and sisters build their cities, the Branbuk survives. We are quite safe.”
Hayden remembered a couple of buildings in Tek that had trees inexplicably growing indoors. They had to erect the buildings around them. He thought it was some odd alien custom, but it sounded like there was a more practical policy at work because they couldn’t remove the trees. The Nigramotoians had no problem cutting down trees. They just planted one for each one they cleared.
Hayden also realized the translator wasn’t activated by the elder’s speech. The man must have learned human because his speech was accented. The translator made it sound like the person who was speaking spoke the same language of the listener, in the listener’s native accent. It attempted to mimic their vocal patterns to give the listener the experience that the speaker was using their language. Since Sha was speaking in human, it didn’t set off the translating matrix.
“You seem to know a lot about humans,” Hayden remarked, just now realizing that a handshake was odd for a Nigramotoian.
“Hoo-man?” he said confused.
“Teristaque. We call ourselves humans.”
“We are the Earth people.”
“I suppose you wouldn’t call yourself Nigramotoians.”
“Teristaque have a strange need to name everything they discover. Even the use of the word discover. How can you discover something that already exists?”
“How come you know so much about us?”
“I’m very ignorant in your ways; truth be told. I seem to learn something new every day. Teristaque call themselves human.”
“We let Nigs call us Teristaque so they’ll respect us,” Colonel Dodgery’s voice bellowed as he hovered over them with an entourage of fully equipped soldiers. The colonel was decorated with lots of different emblems and medals painted on his armor. “Where is your gun, soldier?”
“I lost it in the attack, sir,” Hayden said.
The krikshek snarled and growled at the approach of the newcomers. It attempted to climb the tree with more gusto. Colonel Dodgery had a gargantuan hunting rifle. It fired rounds the size of Hayden’s gloved fist. The recoil from the rifle would tear a human in half. Only the very skilled could stay standing when they fired it in their power armor. The colonel pointed his gun at the beast below.
“Do you think this creature will wait for you to collect your weapon?”
“The NT’s are useless, sir,” Hayden said. He instantly regretted it.
“Useless? A standard issue NT-4K battle rifle may not penetrate the hide of a krikshek but make no mistake. A few second distraction could be the difference between life and death. I want you to drop and give me twenty.”
“Sir?” Hayden said.
“Is your communications unit malfunctioning?”
“No, sir.”
“Then drop and give me twenty. I will not repeat myself again.”
The krikshek continued to rage below. It looked even fiercer than before. Hayden let go of the tree branch and dropped to the ground. While his power armor absorbed most of the impact, he still felt the pain of hitting the ground shoot through his legs. The creature was confused for a moment, then whipped around to face Hayden. He dropped to his knees as the beast turned to strike. The killing blow never came.
The Colonel’s entourage peppered the creature with rounds from their NT-4K’s. The beast darted in different directions, attempting to swat at the bullets. They circled it, and it spun around aiming to gore the invisible adversary with its tail. Hayden had to duck several times to avoid a tail lashing. The hunters closed in around the beast. Finally, the colonel aimed his massive rifle and fired one round. The crack echoed throughout the chasm. The krikshek’s chest exploded, and it fell to the ground.
The creature groaned from the wound. Sha scrambled down the tree with such agility that he was the first at the beast’s side. He muttered ancient rites and embedded two daggers in the krikshek’s neck. The moaning ceased.
The colonel landed with his troops and yelled at Hayden, “I told you to give me twenty.”
Twenty push-ups were a futile endeavor in power armor. The armor was bulky, and he couldn’t go down all the way. The suit also aided his muscle movement, so he would be able to do much more than he normally could. The real lesson, though, was already over. The colonel was only reinforcing who was really in charge.
“Who’s your Nig friend?” Colonel Dodgery said to Hayden while Sha thanked the beast for its meat.
“I don’t know, sir,” he said between push-ups, “but I think he deserves some credit. He helped me get away from the krikshek, sir.”
The soldiers pushed Sha aside and used a laser saw to burn the beast’s head off. Sha looked irritated, but he didn’t protest. The colonel sized him up.
“Is that right?” he said. “Most Nigs would leave you to die. What’s your game, Nig?”
Sha smiled and bowed. “No game. I am here as an ambassador to my people.”
“Ambassador? The Nigs already have one.”
“They already have one for the cities. There is no one to speak for the villages. I am an ambassador for the villages.”
“Is that right?” The colonel said, “Looks like we got ourselves a diplomat, boys. I guess I should have been wearing my dress uniform.”
His hunting party chuckled. They had almost finished removing its head from its body; they were going to bring it back as a trophy, no doubt, for the colonel’s wall.
Sha was either not aware of the rudeness of their behavior or decided to ignore it. He continued, “I am here to ask the Teristaques if they will stop taking the earth ore. The Branbuk tree is dying, and so are the forests. The decrand supplies the trees with life.”
“Is that right? It looks as if we have a bonafide ecologist, too,” Col. Dodgery said, and the men chuckled. “Well, I have a negotiation for you. Why don’t you go back to your village and tell your Nig friends that they should find a new home? There are plenty of forests out there.”
“You can’t…” Sha protested.
“I can, and I will.” He lifted his gun and pointed it at Sha.
Sha bowed several times and backed away. Once he was far enough, he turned his back and ran. Col. Dodgery walked to Hayden. He had finished his push-ups and watched the entire altercation. The colonel helped him to his feet and said, “You can’t give them an inch. You let the Nigs have any ground, and they’ll take more. Don’t let their planet-friendly crap trick you. They are a violent species and one of the few that can hold its own against a human in a suit of power armor. They have a big smile, but they carry a sharp stick.”
_______
Hayden reconnected with his squad much later in the day. After Sarge yelled at him for leaving his firearm out of reach and being tasked with returning the body to base camp, Hayden just wanted a chance to lie down for the night in bed when they returned. He wouldn’t get his wish because when they got back, the squad celebrated the downing of the krikshek, and Hayden was the guest of honor. Alcoholic refreshments and a crackling stereo were the best that they could do in the temporary town. Even Sarge joined to kick back a few.
During the night, they painted the badge of their unit on his armor. It was a wolf with sharp teeth. Firestorm explained the rules while she used a machine to spray the symbol on his chest plate. “Armor can
only be painted after a soldier has proved themselves. Surviving a krikshek is a rite of passage. Surviving one without a weapon, I don’t know if it’s a feat or just stupid.” Hayden laughed and celebrated into the night.
Much later, after they all went to sleep except for Sarge, Hayden stumbled over and plopped down next to him. He was looking at the stars again.
Hayden asked, “Why are we here Sarge?”
The alcohol clouded his better judgment. Surprisingly, Sarge didn’t treat the question like insubordination. Perhaps alcohol clouded his superior’s better judgment, too.
“We are here to protect the mining operations from hostiles. There can be no disruptions in mining. Our way of life depends on it.”
“No, I mean on this planet. Isn’t there decrand in the core of most gas giants?”
“You know, Earth’s solar system used to have eight planets.”
“Eight planets, sir?”
“What’s beyond Mars?”
“Rocks, space dust. Nothing of consequence.”
“We had four gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They each had a decrand core. Once we figured out decrand was the key ingredient for an interstellar drive, it didn’t take us long to figure out how to mine the material at the core. But mining gas giants is dangerous work. You remember what happened in the Hillerman system?”
Hayden remembered being immersed in a three-dimensional simulation when he was a teenager. It was a star system with molten planets. They were heated by a decrand explosion of the local gas giant. To think that humans had mined out their local gas giants without incinerating their only home before they even leaped out into the stars; Hayden was surprised that he existed at all.
“Then you add to the fact that gas giant mining is expensive, you need to use energy to counteract the gravity, energy to haul the ore out of the gravity well, and also make sure you extract carefully, so the gas giant dissipates as you extract rather than explodes. You always have to mine just right, so the atmosphere of the gas giant evaporates into space. If you take too much, then the atmosphere builds pressure and goodbye solar system.”